07.10.13
Gemini version available ♊︎Intellectual Ventures Pays for Another Propaganda Campaign Advocating Patent Trolls
The primary forces behind Intellectual Ventures
Bill and Nathan, two patent profiteers and sharks. Credit: Reuters
Summary: The world’s largest troll, and the troll behind some anti-FOSS litigation, is trying to impede federal action that targets patent trolls
Red Hat’s David Perry, who is “responsible for managing the company’s on-going defense in patent litigation” according to his description, is worried about how things are progressing. Earlier this year Red Hat got extorted by Acacia (Microsoft-connected) yet again and last year was a “banner year for patent litigation,” he says. To quote: “Open source community members and most everyone else involved in software are concerned about patent lawsuits and the activities of non-practicing entities (NPEs). While we all have a sense from personal experience or by reading the news that patent litigation and NPEs are a large and growing concern, at times it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. A new report from a respected accounting firm gives a bird’s eye view of the forest.”
Guess who else has a new ‘report’ (self-serving propaganda)? Microsoft’s patent troll, then world’s biggest patent troll, bankrolled by Bill Gates and run by his friend Nathan (with whom he collaborates a lot). Now that the FTC is going after trolls and may try to depose this massive troll (it can go after Intellectual Ventures for suing Linux/Android for example) there needs to be a lot of lying. The lies are so bad that Masnick is having a field day with them. To quote parts of the debunking:
Ah, Intellectual Ventures, and its hamfisted attempts to make itself and its massive patent trolling operation look good. Today it tried to wrap itself in the American Flag for July 4th, by posting the results of a “survey” that it commissioned, pretending to make itself look awesome. Of course, as pretty much everyone knows, when you ask leading questions in a survey, you can get the answers you want.
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Once again, IV seems to think people are stupid, and that all it needs to do is spew bullshit to support its position. What a sad place it must be to work at when the best they can do is to ask misleading questions that, even when answered as is, make “big corporation” Intellectual Ventures look so bad.
With approximately 2,000 proxies attacking actual companies which do something real, it is clear that IV is purely a parasite and it is reportedly lobbying with the Gates Foundation in Washington (huge lobbying budget reported a couple of years ago); both are parasites that use patents to enrich themselves at everyone else’s expense.
It is worth mentioning that NewEgg, a frequent victim of patent trolls, is now selling some anti-patent trolls shirts. That’s how hated patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures are:
While lots of companies hate patent trolls, few have gone quite as far as NewEgg to flat out declare very publicly that they will never settle with a patent troll. While this has lead to some lawsuits, the strategy seems to be working for the company, and we wonder why more companies don’t do the same. Since many trolls just want companies to settle quickly, having a reputation as a fighter should (hopefully) lead those trolls to stay away.
Rather than deal with patent trolls and cours fees, how about dealing with the patents they use? These are almost always software patents. As for Intellectual Ventures, this operation should be shut down for racketeering and the people who run it put in prison after charges under the RICO Act. But we live in a world where rules simply do not apply to very wealthy people who lobby the government, so expect no justice. █
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